


Healing is Pain: Anyone Who Says Differently is Selling Something

by taylor_tut



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Langst, Sick Character, Sick Lance, Sickfic, healer lance, healing pod au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-23 04:08:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10711872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylor_tut/pseuds/taylor_tut
Summary: Lame title, lol.Healing pod AU: Lance has healing powers and during a particularly rough battle, he experiences the effects of pushing himself too far.





	Healing is Pain: Anyone Who Says Differently is Selling Something

When Keith stumbled around the corner with a bleeding gash across his left side, Lance’s heart sank. He rushed to Keith’s side, catching him just as he collapsed to the floor and easing his fall.

“Keith, are you with me?” Lance asked gently, cupping Keith’s face with his hand, a long finger resting against his jawline.

“Ngh,” Keith moaned, “yeah. Freakin’ Galra soldier sliced me.”

“It’s okay,” Lance soothed, “I’ve got you now.” Lance held Keith close and closed his eyes as he felt his healing powers begin to explore the cut, reaching their inky tendrils into the place where the skin had broken. He focused on the largest cut first, worried about using all his energy on smaller cuts before the most pressing concern was fully closed, and concentrated as his healing energy kicked Keith’s regenerative cells into high gear, felt them restoring the muscle and skin that had been damaged. He was distantly grateful that Keith hadn’t broken any bones–that was always the most painful to heal. This was tolerable, if he gritted his teeth. 

“Lance,” Keith said quietly, sitting up when he didn’t hear a reply, “Lance!” The increased urgency got his attention, snapping him out of his trance-like state. “That’s good. Don’t waste your energy on the little scrapes and bruises. We still need to find the others.” Lance shook his head to clear it. 

“Right,” he said sheepishly, exhausted, “Sorry. Guess it got away from me a little.” Keith nodded and helped Lance stand up, lunging forward when the upright position made the world spin and Lance started to topple forward. 

“Alright?” Keith verified. 

“Yeah,” Lance nodded. “Just a little dizzy.” That wasn’t infrequent for Lance after his healing sessions–Keith liked to think it akin to hypoglycemia. When the storage started to run low, Lance’s body would protest. He wasn’t sure what happened when it ran out completely, which is why he stopped Lance before he healed all his small cuts and bruises. He didn’t want to find out. Slowly, Lance hauled himself up on his feet and followed Keith down the hallway toward the rest of the group. 

“Shrio,” Keith called into the comms, “How are you guys doing?” 

“We took out all the soldiers,” Shiro informed, “but Pidge is hurt.”

“Pidge?” Keith asked concernedly into the comm. 

“It’s just a sprained ankle,” she replied, “No big deal, but I can’t walk on it. Is Lance with you?”

“Yeah, but he already used up a lot of–”

“I’m on my way, Pidge,” Lance interrupted. Keith muted his comm to talk to Lance privately. 

“Are you sure you’ve got enough stamina left for that?” 

“I’ll be fine,” Lance brushed him off. He was sweating and his hands were shaking, but if Lance said he was fine, Keith wasn’t going to argue with him.

* * *

As soon as Lance touched Pidge, he cried out in pain, recoiling as if he’d been burned. 

“Lance?” Pidge tried, leaning forward to cup his face in her hands. 

“Sorry,” Lance apologized. “This isn’t sprained, dude, it’s broken. I just wasn’t expecting it. Caught me off guard. I’m ready now.”

“Don’t push yourself,” Hunk advised from behind him, resting his hands on Lance’s shoulders to support him. Quite a few times, Lance had overextended his healing energy and ended up collapsing backward and hitting his head, so Hunk had taken to preemptively holding him upright to avoid any nasty falls and bumps on the head. 

Lance closed his eyes and fought through the pain of healing Pidge’s ankle bone. The break was complex, and took agonizingly long to repair. When it was finally finished, he probed her for further injuries, finding only a few minor cuts, then moved on to Hunk. 

“Why didn’t you say you hit your head?” Lance murmured, his eyes still shut.

“It’s not bad, Lance, please don’t.” But Lance was already working on reducing the swelling in Hunk’s head and healing the concussion. Hunk visibly relaxed as the pain left him.

“Thanks, buddy,” he smiled as he felt the tendrils of Lance’s healing powers ghost away again, retreating back to their master. Lance returned his smile for  a split second before going limp in Hunk’s arms. “Lance?” he called, shaking the blue paladin’s shoulders lightly, “Lance, can you hear me?”

Lance stirred gently, his eyelids fluttering with the effort of staying conscious.

“Mhmm,” he murmured, opening his eyes. They weren’t tracking anything specifically, just looking dazedly ahead. Shiro knelt down in front of him worriedly and set a hand lightly on his knee, and Lance’s healing powers reached out once more, probing Shiro’s body without Lance telling them to. 

“Woah, hey, I’m fine,” Shiro insisted as he felt his scratches closing rapidly and the bruising on his knuckles disappearing. He backed away when he realized that Lance hadn’t even heard his reassurance, but the probing didn’t let up. Normally, Lance’s healing powers felt a lot like what Shiro imagined it would be to be touched by a ghost–cold and whispy. However, as the energy continued to touch him, it felt lukewarm and weak, almost imperceptible, until it faded into nothingness instead of the cold snap that he was accustomed to when Lance reeled his healing powers back in. He was terrified for a moment that they’d collectively killed him by accruing a bunch of minor injuries, but Lance looked up at him a moment later and he let himself breathe a sigh of relief. 

“You didn’t have to do that, you know,” Shiro chastised. “You don’t have to heal every tiny injury we get. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

“Are you okay?” Pidge asked.

Lance smiled weakly. “Not a scratch on me,” he replied cheekily. 

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Keith interjected. “The Galra will send more soldiers after us.”

“Ready to stand?” Hunk asked, starting to maneuver Lance into an upright position.

Lance was walking slowly, but that was to be expected, Keith supposed. The group was trying to slow down so as not to lose him, but it seemed like he was losing steam with every passing moment until finally he was staggering forward on unsteady feet right into Keith’s back, nearly knocking him over. 

“Hey!” Keith exclaimed, but the initial anger dissipated when he found himself catching Lance in his arms as he collapsed.

“Headache,” Lance slurred, “Sorry, just. One sec.” 

“Okay, okay,” Keith reassured, “take your time.” He’d really pushed himself far this time healing everyone, and there was no rush–well, there was, but Keith couldn’t think about that right now with the way Lance was hanging nearly limp in his arms and shivering like he was freezing to death. “Are you cold?”

“Nah,” Lance lied. Not like there was anything Keith could do about it the teeth-chattering shivers that were wracking his body.  Keith knew it, too.

“We’ll be done soon and we’ll get you into a healing pod. Charge your batteries.”

Lance removed his palms from his eye sockets and took a deep breath. “M’ready,” he said, sounding the farthest thing from it.

* * *

This time, he managed to last until they got to the basement of the Galra ship before everything was spinning so fast he couldn’t take it anymore. 

“I gotta sit down,” he slurred, reaching out blindly for something to grip onto. Shiro and Keith took his arms and eased him down into a seated position on the ground.

“What’s wrong?” Shiro asked. Lance had his head tucked between his knees and was still shivering violently. 

“Everything’s spinning,” he replied. Shiro’s stomach knotted in worry. Lance had never reacted this severely to healing before. He wondered if something else was wrong. 

“Were you hit?” he asked. Lance shook his head. “Hit your head at all?” Another negative reply. “This is just because you overdid it with the healing, then?” Lance hesitated, then shrugged.

“Y’needed it,” he slurred.

“We also need you alive,” Pidge objected. “If you go down, we don’t have anyone who can make you better.”

“M’not down,” Lance argued. “Just… _sitting_  down.”

“Yeah? And can you get back up?” Lance hesitated and started to try, but Shiro shoved his shoulders back down. 

“Don’t. Just don’t. We’re resting for a while.”

“We can’t–” 

“Well, we don’t have a choice anymore,” Keith snapped. “This is what happens when you’re not responsible about your limits, Lance. It affects everyone.”

“Keith, lay off him,” Hunk scolded. 

“What was I supposed to do; just let you bleed out?” Lance asked in a deadly quiet tone. “Because that was the alternative.”

“You didn’t have to heal Shiro’s cuts and bruises,” Keith snapped. 

Lance sputtered. “That was an accident,” he fought. 

“And just like all your other ‘accidents,’ it has consequences.”

Keith stormed off, leaving Lance sitting wide eyed and a little teary. The group was content to let him sulk alone and cool off, but suddenly Lance reached out and grabbed Pidge’s hand. 

“Lance?” she startled, the panic clear in her voice as she looked at his suddenly pale face. 

“I don’t feel right,” he admitted, sounding a bit worried himself.

“What are you feeling?” Shiro asked in a businesslike tone. 

“Real bad,” Lance whispered weakly, his eyelids fluttering. “I can’t–think straight. Can’t relax my leg.” When Hunk looked down at the blue paladin’s leg, it was indeed flexed painfully hard, his toes pointed unnaturally. With terror dangerously close to rising up from his throat in the form of either a scream or vomit, he wasn’t quite sure and didn’t care to find out, Hunk watched as the tetany spread up Lance’s leg and slowly but steadily claimed his thigh, his hips, and eventually made his back cramp fiercely and painfully, hunching him over backward. 

“Go get Keith,” Shiro commanded, “We’ve got to get out of here.” Hunk took off toward where the Red paladin had retreated and called out his name.

“Go away, Hunk,” Keith bit from a few feet ahead after he’d run quite a distance already. “I’m not apologizing.”

“We’re going back to the castle,” Hunk informed blandly. Keith paled a bit at the urgency of his tone.

“Did something happen?”

“Lance is… he’s in bad shape. We’re getting him back to the castle.” Keith took off running, barely even waiting for Hunk to trail behind him. When he finally approached the clearing  where they’d left Lance, he was sickened by what he saw. Lance’s back was arched at an unnatural backward angle, and Pidge was standing guard. 

“Where’s Shiro?” Hunk asked.

“Getting Black,” Pidge informed. Keith had never heard her sound so troubled, clearly disturbed by the amount of pain Lance was clearly in. 

“What’s–what is this?” Keith asked, gesturing vaguely to Lance.

“Honestly? I’ve got fuck-all idea,” Pidge admitted, running a hand through her hair with a desperate laugh. “I just know we have to fix it. He’s hurting.” When Keith quieted, he could hear the very small sound of Lance’s harsh breathing, and when he took a few steps closer, he could see the tears streaming down his face, soaking the hair by his temples. All he could do was run his hands through it and whisper things that sounded nice but didn’t mean anything until Shiro returned with the Black Lion and they could get Lance home.

Well.

The best they could do, anyway. Keith knew that Lance often missed his family. But if home was where the heart is, then maybe Lance had poured enough of his into the paladins to feel like he belonged here with them. That’s what he would tell himself, anyway, so long as Lance was relaxing even imperceptibly into his touch. 


End file.
